Landscape Management, October 2012

ADD ONBIZ EXTEND YOUR BUSINESS Landscape therapy PHOTO MONJI LANDSCAPE COS A hospital healing garden designed by Monji Landscape Cos Monji Landscape Cos fnds a niche in healing gardens R esearchers say natural settings can lower stress decrease blood pressure and heart rate and relieve muscle tension Thats the catalyst behind a growing trend toward adding healing gardens to hospital campuses nursing homes and other health care settings Monji Landscape Cos a Bakersfeld Calif based frm has gotten into designing and installing these gardens and has found it to be benefcial not only fnancially but in terms of goodwill Dan Monji senior designer and chief executive offcer says that he was moved by the story of a young patient who experienced the frst healing garden his company designed at Mercy Hospital in downtown Bakersfeld A nurse told him that a 14 year old boy who was being treated for terminal cancer watched the evolution of the garden from start to fnish from his hospital window When the garden was fnished he was anxious to go there says Monji He would just sit there for almost an hour at a time in his wheelchair And he ended up spending his last day there a place to be away from the pain he was experiencing to be out of his room and mentally escaping it all Ive done a lot of projects in my 37 years but nothing has impacted me that way That kind of impact is why Monji and his son Aaron Gundry Monji project manager and account representative continue to design and build these gardens and view them as a growing niche for their company Gundry Monji says that the beautifully fnished project has almost sold itself by helping land the company other jobs But its been the overwhelming response from doctors visitors and patients that has really spread the word of how important these healing gardens can be says Gundry Monji That frst healing garden ultimately turned into two separate projects Then Mercy Southwest Hospital brought Monji in for a third healing garden Donations totaling 300000 funded the three gardens Monji says healing gardens are a smart complement to his business which has always put its focus on taking an artistic approach This niche gives us a great opportunity as a company that prides itself on being artistic designers adds his son This is about creating living art for people at the hospital And as a functional purpose its about easing pain and bringing some peace Each job is completely custom so the project costs differ greatly It depends on the hospitals budget which is typically determined by how many donations it receives as well as the size of the project Even at the one campus where we did two separate jobs those budgets were very different says Gundry Monji Though the company does see this as being a proftable niche Gundry Monji adds that its much more involved than a standard design build job With a healing garden youre dealing with the hospital and often also the fundraisers and the donors making sure that youre designing something that everyone is happy with he explains There are a lot more players involved and a lot of time before you ever see any money from it We put a lot of time into the concept and the design alone But even if there isnt always a huge proft margin on the hospital project itself Gundry Monji says the additional work and the positive press its garnered for the company are worth more I cant tell you how many jobs weve gotten from word of mouth because of having designed these healing gardens he says Even just some of our standard residential work has come as a result of people seeing the healing gardens Local media was there for the unveilings and that was big for us too The author is a freelance writer with seven years of experience covering landscaping By casey PaytOn SERVICE SNAPSHOT cOmPany Monji Landscape Cos headquarters Bakersfeld Calif year FOunded 1953 service BreakdOwn 90 percent design build 10 percent maintenance clientele 90 percent residential why healing gardens It has s grown out of all the years our family has been involved in creating beautiful gardens as our passion says Dan Monji chief executive offcer Artistic designs have always been our specialty A hospital can be a stressful place but a beautiful garden can provide you an escape LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET OCTOBER 2012 140

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